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IN THIS ISSUE – “California Has Been the Tail That Wagged the Dog”

POLITICS & POLICY

CRITICAL ISSUES

Capital News & Notes (CN&N) harvests California policy, legislative and regulatory insights from dozens of media and official sources for the past week. Please feel free to forward this unique service.

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FOR THE WEEK ENDING NOV. 5, 2021

 

Lt. Gov. Carries California Message to Global Climate Change Conference

CalMatters

What a week it’s been for Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.

On Tuesday, she took the stage for two panels at the United Nations climate change conference alongside President Joe Biden’s national climate advisor, governors and business executives — just four days after Gov. Gavin Newsom abruptly cancelled his trip to Glasgow, Scotland and announced that Kounalakis would lead the California delegation in his place.

That’s not a lot of time to prepare for a high-stakes international trip — and the weather didn’t make things any easier.

In conversations with Kounalakis and her chief of staff on Tuesday, I learned that their plans to travel by train from London to Glasgow on Sunday were derailed — quite literally — by a storm-uprooted tree knocking out the power lines for the only direct rail link between the two cities. So they made the 7-hour drive instead.

Kounalakis, who plans to leave Glasgow on Thursday, told me that her schedule is materially the same as what the governor’s would have been: four panels — including one today with U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and the governors of Louisiana and New Mexico — a tour of an electric bus transportation hub and numerous meetings.

Kounalakis: “The overall message is the strength of California’s subnational leadership and the power of our innovation economy to help the world scale up on climate solutions.”

She also emphasized those points in one of her panels, asserting that “California has been the tail that has wagged the dog on environmental protection.” As an example, she cited Newsom’s order to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, noting, “We are the largest consumer market in the United States, and this standard is most certainly already shaping the future.”

When New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked Kounalakis how California handles climate change skeptics, Kounalakis suggested that wasn’t the Golden State’s primary concern: “For Californians, I think that the bigger question is, if we do our part, will the rest of the country follow and the rest of the world follow? And frankly, that’s why I’m in Glasgow, that’s why we have one of the largest delegations we’ve ever had … of officials from California,” she said.

Still, cracks stemming from Newsom’s last-minute cancellation were apparent. Lujan Grisham initially referred to Kounalakis as the lieutenant governor of Hawaii, and Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate advisor, said the audience was “looking at three governors who have the courage to actually set the pace for change in the United States of America.”

And public details about Kounalakis’ schedule were initially scarce: Although Newsom’s office sent me her event lineup on Tuesday in response to a media inquiry, the only place I could find information about her schedule before that was an Oct. 31 press release from the New Mexico governor.

Limited information has been a consistent theme in the Newsom administration’s handling of the conference: Reporters weren’t informed that he would be attending until nine days after the deadline to apply for a press credential, and the governor has not elaborated on the “family obligations” that prompted him to cancel his trip.

 

Legislature Is Adjourned (So It’s) “Jet-Setting Season, Baby!”

CalMatters

It’s jet-setting season, baby!

More California lawmakers are scheduled to travel to Glasgow for the United Nations climate change conference. Though Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, the leader of California’s delegation, is set to head home today, some state legislators and high-ranking members of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration will stay in Scotland through next week.

Some of the Democratic assemblymembers heading to Scotland are fresh off a three-day stay at a seaside golf resort in Pebble Beach, where lobbyists — whose clients made $50,000 or $75,000 contributions to the California Democratic Party — could hobnob with them while enjoying spa treatments, cocktail parties and a swanky dinner. Normally an annual event, it was the first Speakers Cup since the pandemic hit. (A few weeks ago, Senate Democrats held their own fundraiser at another golf resort.)

But then an attendee tested positive for COVID-19, prompting organizers to cancel the dinner party and ask guests to pick up a takeout meal instead — leaving lobbyists with little opportunity for elbow-rubbing. “Out of an abundance of caution, we wanted to protect our guests and the hotel workers,” said Bill Wong, the Assembly Democrats’ political director.

However, 10 Assembly Democrats still plan to travel to Scotland, said Katie Talbot, a spokesperson for Speaker Anthony Rendon. She said the delegation plans to meet with representatives from Germany, Scotland, Paris and Australia to discuss, respectively, green transportation, climate adaption and hydrogen development; offshore wind resources; extreme heat and climate adaptation; and wildfires.

COVID has also made an appearance at the climate conference: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — who’s still awaiting confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to India — announced Wednesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating in his Glasgow hotel room.

The whirlwind of travel and hobnobbing comes at a key time for lawmakers: They wrapped up the legislative session on Sept. 10 and won’t return to Sacramento until January, giving them a few months to raise money and make connections ahead of the 2022 elections.

Indeed, a bipartisan group of 10 state lawmakers traveled to Portugal from Oct. 16 to 27 on a trip sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy. On the agenda: meeting with elected officials and community leaders, studying offshore wind energy, exploring opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and learning about Portugal’s drug decriminalization program.

And later this month, several state lawmakers will likely converge in Maui for an annual four-day policy conference sponsored by the Independent Voter Project. Some also went last year, despite state restrictions on nonessential travel.

The Portugal and Maui events aren’t paid for by taxpayers, but rather by special interests that lobby the Legislature — typically a combination of labor unions, corporations and trade associations. And the Speaker’s Cup is sponsored by AT&T.

The Climate Action Reserve and the Climate Registry — groups that manage a system for measuring greenhouse gas emissions — will cover some costs for lawmakers to attend the climate conference in Scotland, while Rendon will personally pay for other expenses, Talbot said. The Assembly — i.e., taxpayers — will pay for a few security staff to attend. Niesha Fritz, a spokeswoman for Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, said five state senators are personally paying for their Scotland trips and security is not part of the Senate delegation.

 

CADems Debate Ending Petroleum Contributions

Sacramento Bee

Even as they call for the international community end its reliance on oil, some Democrats are not ready to give up fossil fuel contributions to their own campaigns.

The California Democratic Party faces pressure from more its more liberal members to stop accepting contributions from fossil fuel organizations and law enforcement groups.

Activists had hoped to hold a vote on the contributions at a recent meeting, but the issue was deferred to a subcommittee for another four months of study. It was not the outcome many had hoped for.

“We were flabbergasted,” said RL Miller, a former chair of the party’s Environmental Caucus and founder of Climate Hawks Vote. “Steamrollered.”

The decision to delay a vote on what some members have called “dirty money” sparked outrage from Miller and others who say the party shouldn’t accept funds from groups they say harm the environment or represent law enforcement.

Some Democrats, however, argue that the party shouldn’t get picky about money ahead of an important election cycle. Fossil fuel companies are also major employers in some Democrat-held counties, like Kern and Contra Costa.

The dispute not only highlights the rift between Democratic party leadership and its more liberal members, but raises questions about why, in blue California, Democrats are still taking money from groups that, at times, seem at odds with their stated positions.

“People want to win elections, and the way you win elections is, in large part, fundraising,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School. “The calculation is basically, ‘are we going to win more votes by saying no more fossil fuel money? Or will we win more votes by trying to kind of delay it?’”

The California Democratic Party raises tens of millions of dollars each year. In the 2019-2020 election cycle, the party raised more than $47 million, state records show.

About $2.3 million, less than 5%, came from the law enforcement and fossil fuel organizations activists are targeting. That’s not as much as groups like the California Teachers Association or SEIU Local 1000, which in the same cycle donated totals of $3.58 million and $1.38 million, respectively.

The state party already doesn’t accept money from the seven so-called “big oil” companies like ExxonMobil or Chevron, a party spokesperson said. But activists want to go further, ending contributions from all fossil fuel organizations, California-based investor-owned utilities and fossil fuel industry executives. Members of the party’s environmental, Black, and progressive Caucuses say it shouldn’t take money from groups they argue are hurting Californians.

“In the context of a state that routinely has communities burned down, where folks die because they’re unable to escape fires, where our beaches are polluted by oil, where our air is polluted with toxins… it’s imperative for the party to lead and take action to decrease human suffering and stop the needless incarceration of our siblings,” said Progressive Caucus Chair Amar Shergill

Still, some Democrats say it’s foolish to reject donations that could help win campaigns. “At the end of the day, the goal is to get legislation passed,” said Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio. “The hurdle to that is not Democrats, it’s Republicans. And if we shoot ourselves in the foot by not having enough money to defeat Republicans, then we’re hurting our efforts to pass aggressive climate laws.”

Party leaders, like Secretary Melahat Rafiei, argued at the party’s recent meeting that the delay would allow more voices to join the discussion. “You’re not the voice of everybody,” Rafiei said. “There are lots of delegates who want to be involved in this…I’m pretty sure the board’s going to vote to stop this money, so why can’t we have an inclusive plan?”

Party Controller April Verrett, who will lead the subcommittee, said the deferral isn’t about “power plays.” “Let me do the job you elected me to do,” she told members. “Trust me to live my truth, trust me to put the interest of Black lives and brown lives and marginalized lives first.”

But party activists felt the study was another way to kick the issue down the road. This is not the first time members had urged leadership to ditch fossil fuel and law enforcement money — last year, two separate committees recommended Democrats stop accepting the contributions.

“We have already had more than enough process,” Igor Tregub, chair of the Environmental Caucus, said following the meeting. “I wish with every part of my soul that we had taken a strong position on both of these existential matters.” “Climate change presents an existential threat to the future of humanity,” the platform preamble reads. California Democrats have made efforts in recent years to wind down the oil and gas industry in the name of climate change, but activists say it’s just nibbling around the edges of what needs to be done.

Tregub pointed to this year’s Senate Bill 467, which would have created setbacks for oil and fracking. It failed in a Democrat-controlled committee. The same thing happened to Assembly Bill 1395, which would have made it the policy of the state to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and reduce anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions by at least 90% below the 1990 level by no later than 2045. “California used to be a leader on these issues. It isn’t anymore,” Shergill said. “And a large part of that is because of the money we take from these industries.” But some Democrats, like consultant Andrew Acosta, worry that rejecting money from certain interests is a “slippery slope.” “I think if you start drawing the line at every special interest, where do you end?” he said. “I’m not saying that activists shouldn’t have those conversations. I’m just saying from a political standpoint… you try to have the most resources you can to fight the Republican.” Fossil fuel companies also create well-paid jobs in California. Last year, when Newsom announced a ban on gas cars by 2035, he was praised by environmentalists, but others were wary about the effect on labor. “We can hate on oil, but the truth is our refinery jobs are really good middle-class jobs,” Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, tweeted after the announcement. “Jobs can’t be an afterthought to any climate change legislation.” Party Chair Rusty Hicks has a long history with labor, and previously served as president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which represents workers in more than 300 unions.

The subcommittee on party finance will meet for 120 days before presenting a recommendation to the party in the spring, at which point executive members will again have a chance to vote. But some members of the party say they’re discouraged by what they see now as a routine effort to avoid serious action on climate change.

“The delay now has become so pervasive, so routine and so fueled by dirty money, that it’s impossible to characterize this delay as anything other than climate denial,” Shergill said.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article255375756.html#storylink=cpy

 

Virginia GOP Win…The Golden State Angle:

Politico

RIPPLES: Republicans are gleefully recirculating a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris telling a McAuliffe rally that “what happens in Virginia will in large part determine what happens in 2022, 2024 and on.” California conservatives are also drawing hope from Republican Laura Lothian — now leading the race for the La Mesa City Council seat formerly held by Assemblymember Akilah Weber — in the hopes that her campaign is a preview of the midterms, when California Republicans will seek to defend four flipped seats and pick up more.

 

Recall Voter Data Reveal Gen Z Impatience

NBC-LX

They aren’t the numbers Democrats wanted to see heading into a vital midterm year.

New data obtained by NBCLX reveals turnout among voters aged 18-29 fell by nearly half for California’s September recall election, compared to the 2020 presidential election 10 months earlier.  The share of ballots from those young adults fell to just 12% of the electorate, down from 17% last November, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Even though overall turnout for the recall election was down 28% from 2020’s presidential race, the drop-off among voters under 30 (48%) was four times higher than the drop-off among voters over 60 (12%).

It’s a warning sign, as well as a bit of a paradox, for Democrats.

Gen Z-ers, voters more likely than any other generation to support Democratic candidates, according to Pew, are also now the voters most likely to say they no longer support the job performance of President Joe Biden and other established Democrat leaders.

California’s turnout numbers, as well as recent polling, suggest Democrats may be suffering due to young progressives’ frustrations over the glacial pace of progress in fulfilling Biden campaign promises on social programs, climate change and civil rights.

While the young voter drop-off didn’t stop Newsom from surviving his recall election by a 24-point margin, Democrats trying to preserve their narrow eight-seat House majority don’t feel like they have any room for error in 2022.

“Democrats are going to face devastating consequences in the midterm elections if we do not deliver for the people,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), one of the youngest members of Congress at 34 years old. “Most people intuitively believe that when a party has unified control of the federal government, including majorities in both chambers of Congress, that they should be able to act swiftly, especially on the priorities that they campaigned on.”

Only 43% of Gen-Z voters approve of President Biden’s job performance, compared to 51% of Millennials, 46% of Generation X and 45% of Baby Boomers, according to an October poll from Morning Consult and Politico.

For Gen Z, that represents a nearly 20-point drop in approval from June, when 62% of adults 18-24 gave Biden the thumbs-up, compared to 59% of Millennials and 51% of both Gen X-ers and Baby Boomers. Polls ahead of the California recall election showed similar dissatisfaction among young voters for Gov. Newsom, despite him frequently being painted as too liberal by conservatives in other parts of the country.

And a recent poll from The Economist and YouGov revealed only 36% of voters under 30 said they considered President Biden “liberal,” the lowest of any age group polled. Only 24% considered him “honest and trustworthy,” also the lowest of any age group.

It may have been one of the factors that reportedly led the president to tell Congressional Democrats that “the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined” by the party’s ability to end the stalemates over his bipartisan infrastructure and Build Back Better plans.

Young voters are also dissatisfied with leading Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco native also painted for decades by conservatives as too liberal, but who’s recently been criticized by progressives for not doing enough to forcefully pass Democratic priorities. Her approval rating among Gen-Z voters (23%) was far lower than among any other generation, according to the Morning Consult/Politico poll.

But progress has often been slow in Washington, even for presidents attempting a less ambitious agenda than President Biden.

“Some of the significant issues that we saw change in the 20th century, [like] the voting age lowered to 18, that took decades to happen,” said Abby Keisa, deputy director of the nonpartisan Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. “Part of making important structural changes towards more equitable democracy and stronger communities means staying in the fight.”

Researchers say young voter impatience shouldn’t be confused with apathy.

“[Gen Z] cares very deeply about these issues,” said Carolyn DeWitt, president and executive director of the nonpartisan advocacy group Rock the Vote. “[They’re] starting to reach this tipping point of no turning back, and they’re the ones who are inheriting these messes. They want bold action on them, and they want that fast.”

https://www.lx.com/politics/young-voters-didnt-turn-out-for-californias-recall-what-that-means-for-democrats-in-2022/44683/

 

Drought Crisis Results in 98% Salmon Kill on Sacramento River

Courthouse News

State officials confirmed dire predictions of catastrophic fish kills due to sizzling water temperatures in California’s largest river, announcing Thursday that just 2% of winter-run Chinook juvenile salmon likely survived the summer.

The alarming percentage of juvenile salmon killed on the Sacramento River surpasses the scope of die-offs recorded in the state’s recent drought years and has officials sounding the alarm about the potential permanent collapse of the endangered species.

“The current drought situation is likely to produce very bad returns of fish 3-4 years from now and if we keep having these incredibly bad years, we will not dig out of our population decline,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We’ve got to accept that reality.”

As in previous drought years like 2014 and 2015, the federal government and state have been unable to keep water temperatures cool enough to sustain both eggs and juvenile salmon at several important rivers and streams. The lack of rain, record-breaking heat and deliveries of subsidized water to contractors during the drought have created a perilous situation for fish and wildlife.

According to data presented during a state Senate fisheries committee hearing Thursday, an estimated 75% of winter-run Chinook eggs essentially cooked this summer on the upper Sacramento River. Worse, experts believe nearly all the remaining salmon that did hatch soon died from a combination of low river flows and natural or human-caused mortality.

“It appears that only 1-2% of these endangered baby salmon survived just the first few months of their lives,” testified Doug Obegi, water division director at Natural Resources Defense Council.

For comparison, an estimated 3% of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook juveniles survived in 2014 and just 5% in 2015, both of which were also extreme drought years.

The lack of salmon able to return to spawn and replenish the population will again have significant impacts on the state’s commercial fishing industry down the road.

To account for the disastrous summer on the Sacramento and other rivers like the Klamath and Feather, fishing groups want the state and feds to ramp up fish hatchery operations that prevented the total collapse of salmon populations during the last drought.

The head of the Golden State Salmon Association said the recent trucking of fish from hatcheries directly to the ocean have proven successful. He also urged the state to try and revive salmon populations by planting in the upper reaches of rivers that have long been inaccessible to fish due to dams.

“The McCloud River and certainly spots on Butte Creek, the Feather River and Yuba River that all would invite that type of action, that sounds good to us, and we would love to participate,” said the association’s president John McManus.

Already in 2021 the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has been going to great lengths to combat the drought.

The lack of water in the state’s main reservoirs and subsequent low river flows forced the department to truck 17 million hatchery reared salmon directly to the ocean earlier this year. Conservation officials have also rescued fish from stagnant pools in stretches of rivers near the Oregon border where flows slowed to a trickle.

Further clouding the state’s water future is the fact California is currently fighting the feds over water management plans approved by the Trump administration in early 2020. Both the state and environmentalists say the new rules weakened protections for wildlife and sued in federal court over the so-called biological opinions.

Though the Biden administration has agreed to scrap the carryover policy, new operating plans for the critical Central Valley Project aren’t expected to be finalized for multiple years. The state and feds have agreed to an interim operations plan but environmentalists and agricultural water suppliers have pushed back in court. A federal judge overseeing cases brought by the state and environmentalists has yet to approve the interim plan, so the long-term operations of the critical project remain up in the air.

State Sen. Mike McGuire, whose massive district spans from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Oregon border, criticized the pace of negotiations and said he’s concerned his child won’t grow to see salmon running in the Sacramento River.

“We’re beginning to watch the extinction of an iconic species right in front of our eyes,” said the Santa Rosa Democrat. “Each year it keeps getting worse for salmon here in the Golden State and I’m a firm believer antiquated federal water policy has contributed to this specie’s decline.”

https://www.courthousenews.com/data-confirms-salmon-slaughter-on-californias-main-river/?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&utm_campaign=826864f11b-WHATMATTERS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_faa7be558d-826864f11b-150181777&mc_cid=826864f11b&mc_eid=2833f18cca

 

California Unemployment Claims Keep Climbing

CalMatters

California’s new unemployment claims continue to skyrocket higher, with more than 62,000 residents filing new jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 30 — an increase of nearly 2,500 from the week before, according to federal data released Thursday.

The trend is especially concerning when compared with the country as a whole: Nationally, new unemployment claims for the week ending Oct. 30 fell to their lowest level since the pandemic hit.

But things may be even worse in California than they seem: A new study from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity found that a whopping 26% of California workers are functionally unemployed — meaning they’re seeking, but unable to find, full-time employment paying above the poverty level

 

Community Colleges Enrollment Below 2 Million; First Time in 30 Years

EdSource

Enrollment at California’s community colleges dipped below 2 million students for the first time in at least three decades, the result of a pandemic that has upended education across the country. The drop across the 116-college system, at nearly 15%, is higher than what was reported by the system earlier this year for the fall 2020 semester.

The system, beset by chronic data issues that have stymied its ability to accurately track enrollment during a critical period, on Wednesday said its enrollment for the 2020-21 school year was down 318,800 students, or 14.8%, from the prior year. That puts its student enrollment at 1,833,843, down from 2,152,463 students in 2019-20.

“The steepest declines were among African American students, Native American students, male students and students who are outside of what we consider traditional college-going age,” David O’Brien, the college system’s vice chancellor of government relations, told the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee. “In particular, among all students aged 40 and older, total enrollment declined by over 100,000 students or nearly a third of the overall decline.”

O’Brien said the declines “are highly worrying to us” and described the numbers as the “best estimate we are able to give with our latest available data.”

MORE:

https://edsource.org/2021/california-community-college-enrollment-drops-below-2-million-students-more-than-previously-reported/663225?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&utm_campaign=826864f11b-WHATMATTERS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_faa7be558d-826864f11b-150181777&mc_cid=826864f11b&mc_eid=2833f18cca

 

Atty. Gen. Launches Housing Strike Force v. Cities

CalMatters

In the latest sign that California is getting serious about cracking down on local governments that don’t produce enough housing, Attorney General Rob Bonta on Wednesday launched a Housing Strike Force to enforce tenant protection and housing production laws. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the California Housing and Community Development Agency last week formed its own team to crack down on jurisdictions that break the state’s housing laws. HCD has already identified its first target: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which it says may have acted improperly by rejecting a proposal to build a 495-unit apartment complex in a parking lot. Bonta said the two state teams will work together closely.

Bonta: “They’re not suggestions, recommendations or invitations for voluntary action — they are requirements, and we will enforce them as such.”

Carolyn Coleman, CEO and executive director of the League of California Cities: “Cities do not build homes, and for years have endured whiplash from the state’s scattershot approach to passing housing laws that are often in direct conflict with each other and counterproductive to our shared goals to increase housing supply.